Jose Padilla Convicted by U.S. Jury in Terror Case

Jose Padilla was convicted of terrorism-conspiracy charges in a victory for the Bush administration, which held him in a military prison as an enemy combatant for more than three years.

Padilla, 36, a U.S. citizen, and two co-defendants were found guilty today by a federal jury in Miami of conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country, conspiring to provide support to terrorist groups and providing such support. They could be sentenced to as much as life in prison. An earlier accusation that Padilla plotted to explode a radioactive ``dirty bomb'' wasn't included in the charges.

``We can appeal,'' Padilla's mother, Estelle Lebron, told reporters. ``I don't know how they could find him guilty. There were 300,000 calls and there's no evidence he spoke in code'' in the phone calls recorded by investigators.

About Jose Padilla

Jose Padilla (born October 18, 1970), also known as Abdullah al-Muhajir or Muhajir Abdullah, is a United States citizen accused of being a terrorist by the United States government. Padilla (whose birthname is has been anglicized) [1]) was arrested in Chicago on May 8, 2002, and was detained as a material witness until June 9, 2002, when President Bush designated him an illegal enemy combatant and transferred him to a military prison, arguing that he was thereby not entitled to the protection of United States law. On January 3, 2006, he was transferred to a Miami, Florida jail to face criminal conspiracy charges. Jose Padilla was found guilty on charges he conspired to kill people in an overseas jihad and to fund and support overseas terrorism.